A little more than a decade ago, she was out of work and in debt. Now, ‘the Governess’ is one of Britain’s most famous quizzers. She talks about

Anne Hegerty of The Chase says, "When I was a kid, I used to think that one day I'd be famous and everyone would be sorry."

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2021-05-15 08:29:58

A little more than a decade ago, she was out of work and in debt. Now, ‘the Governess’ is one of Britain’s most famous quizzers. She talks about fame, feminism, Asperger’s and I’m a Celebrity

R ock bottom, for Anne Hegerty, came some time in 2008. Her work – as a freelance copy editor and proofreader – had dried up. “I had become completely undependable,” she says. “Publishing books, you need people to hit the deadline. I wasn’t doing that, so understandably people weren’t giving me work any more.”

She had been struggling with day-to-day life and debt; she was behind on the rent on her flat in Manchester and wasn’t answering the phone. “The housing association lady came round, rang the doorbell. I very carefully peeked round the door and she kind of shoved it open, walked across piles of unopened mail and said: ‘Right, we’re going to fix this.’”

And they did. Hegerty was assigned a social worker, Jeff McKenzie. “J-E-double-F,” she tells me; she doesn’t want it spelt wrong. He was brilliant. He knew what to do, that the water company had a secret fund for people who can’t pay the bill. He helped her to get back on disability benefit and housing benefit. She finally got herself a usable bank account.

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